The Gothic Missal includes prayers for the celebration of mass on the feast day of *John (the Apostle and Evangelist, S00042). Written in Latin in Gaul, perhaps at Luxeuil for the Christian community of Autun, c. 680/710.
E08235
Liturgical texts - Sacramentaries
Late antique original manuscripts - Parchment codex
The Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum)
MISSA SANCTI IOHANNIS APOSTVLI ET EVANGELISTAE
322. Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui huius diei festiuitatem fecisti ad laeticiam beati Iohannis euangelistae, da eclesiae tuae et amare quod crededit et praedicare quod docuit. Per dominum nostrum Iesum Christum filium tuum.
323. COLLECCIO. Deus, qui per os beati Iohannis euangelistae uerbi tui arcana reserasti, praesta, quaesomus, ut quod ille nostris auribus excellenter infudit, intellegenciae conpetenti erudicione capiamus. Per.
324. POST NOMINA. Praesta, omnipotens deus, ut uerbum caro factum, quod beatus Iohannis euangelista praedicauit, per intercessionis suae praesidium habitet semper in nobis. Per.
325. AD PACEM. Pacem tuam, domine, de caelo da nobis et posside nos, ut non hereat in uisceribus nostris fraudolentus osculos proditores, sed pax illa, quam tuis reliquisti discipulis, semper inlibata permaneat in cordibus nostris. Per.
326. IMMOLACIO. Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare est nos tibi, omnipotens deus, gracias agere, beati Iohannis apostuli tui et euangelistae natalicia uenerantes, qui domini nostri Iesu Christi filii tui uocacione suscepta terrenum respuit patrem, ut possit inuenire caelestem. Retia saeculi, quibus implecabatur, abiecit, ut aeternitatis dona mente libera sectaretur. Natantem in fluctibus nauem reliquit, ut eclesiasticae gubernacionis traquillitate consisterit. A piscium capcione cessauit, ut animas mundanis gurgitibus inmersas calamo doctrinae salutaris abstraheret. Distetit pelagi profunda timari, secretorum scrutator redditur diuinorum. Eo usque procedens, ut et in caene mysticae sacrosanctae conuiuio ipsius recumberet pectoris saluatoris et cum in cruce dominus constitutus uicarium sui magistri uirginis filius subrogaret et in principio uerbum, quod deus erat aput deum, ipse prae ceteris ostenderet praedicando. Per Christum dominum nostrum.
'Mass for the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John
322. Almighty and everlasting God, you who have made the feast of this day to the joy of the blessed evangelist John, grant to your Church that it loves what he believed and preaches what he taught. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son [...]
323. Collect. God, who through the mouth of the blessed evangelist John revealed the secrets of your Word, grant, so we ask, that what he poured into our ears in an elevated manner, we may understand with the corresponding language of your intelligence. Through [...]
324. After the names. Grant, almighty God, that the Word made flesh (Ioh. 1, 14) that the blessed evangelist John preached will always live in us through the help of his intercession. Through [...]
325. At the kiss of peace. Grant us, O Lord, your peace from heaven and abide in us, so that the fraudulent kiss of the traitor does not cling to our inner self, but that that peace which you left to your disciples remains undiminished in our hearts. Through.
326. Prayer of sacrifice. It is truly worthy and just, fair and salutary that we bring thanks to you, almighty God, while we celebrate the feast of the birth of the blessed apostle and evangelist John, who rejected his earthly father after having accepted the call of our Lord Jesus Christ your Son to be able to find the heavenly [Father]. He cast away the nets of the world, in which he was entangled, to pursue the gifts of eternity with a free spirit. He abandoned the ship floating on the waves to gain a firm foothold on the tranquillity of the ship of the Church. He stopped catching fish to pull along souls deeply immersed in the whirlpool of the world with the reed of the doctrine of salvation. He stopped probing the depths of the sea and was made investigator of divine mysteries. He made such progress that at the banquet of the holy and mystical supper he reclined on the breast of the Saviour himself, and such that the Lord, hanging on the cross, chose him as substitute for his Master as son of the Virgin, and such that, more than all others, through preaching he revealed the Word that in the beginning was God with God (Ioh. 1, 1-2). Through Christ our Lord.'
Text: Rose 2005, 474-6.
Translation: Rose 2017, 242-3.
Service for the saint
Eucharist associated with cult
Liturgical invocation
Chant and religious singing
Other liturgical acts and ceremonies
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Source
The Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum) is the standard editorial name used for Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 317, a liturgical manuscript (sacramentary) compiled in Burgundy at the turn of the eighth century. It provides an exceptionally rare witness to late antique liturgical practice in Gaul. The inclusion of an entry for the late Merovingian political martyr Leudegar of Autun (eastern Gaul) (ob. 677/9) gives both an earliest possible date for the manuscript's compilation, and, since it appears alongside an entry for the earlier Autun martyr Symphorianus, an indication of the community for which the codex might have been made. On palaeographical grounds, E.A. Lowe located the Missal's production to the scriptorium of Luxeuil (c. 130 miles northeast of Autun), at a date no later than c. 710.The full manuscript is now available to view online: https://spotlight.vatlib.it/it/latin-paleography/catalog/Reg_lat_317
Discussion
The codex as it survives includes entries for nine biblical saints and nine from the city of Rome (plus Cyprian of Carthage, commemorated with Pope Cornelius), alongside six Gallic feast days and one from Spain (Saturninus, Eulalia, Ferreolus and Ferrucio, Symphorianus, Maurice and the Theban Legion, Leudegar, and Martin). The Missal covers most feasts in roughly chronological order, beginning after Christmas with the feast of Stephen (usually 26 Dec.). The manuscript does not, however, provide any dates for the celebration of these feasts: presumably, its users would have also had a separate liturgical calendar at hand.For an overview of the contents of the Gothic Missal, see E08222.
This further mass for John the Apostle and Evangelist, provided in addition to his shared feast with James after Christmas (E08224), is unique to the Gothic Missal. Its intended date of celebration is uncertain, although a feast sometime in May seems most likely: for full discussion of the possibilities, see Rose 2005, 258-62.
Bibliography
Edition and study:Missale Gothicum e codice Vaticano Reginensi latino 317 editum, ed. Els Rose (Turnhout, 2005).
Translation:
The Gothic Missal, trans. Els Rose (Turnhout, 2017).
Further reading:
Lowe, E.A., Codices latini antiquiores, 11 vols (Oxford, 1937-71), i. 32.
Benjamin Savill
04/09/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00042 | John, the Apostle and Evangelist | Iohannes apostolus et euangelista | Certain |
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